


All Trees Look The Same To Me

by Catbunblue302



Series: Whump for Bunnies [20]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, One Shot, Sniper's autistic fight me, Whumptober 2020, a lot of mentions of snot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:40:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catbunblue302/pseuds/Catbunblue302
Summary: Scout gets lost in the woods.
Series: Whump for Bunnies [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949197
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	All Trees Look The Same To Me

In hindsight perhaps Scout shouldn’t have wandered into the woods all by himself. He frequently got lost in Boston and he’d lived there for most of his life! But Scout had wanted to explore and he certainly wasn’t going to ask someone to come make sure he didn’t get lost. He wasn’t a kid, he could go for a walk by himself!

Scout was coming to regret that decision. He’d left after breakfast and now it was getting near suppertime.

_ Okay, Jeremy, think. The sun rises in the east, right? Or was it the west? Ugh, real freakin’ helpful, buddy. _

Scout took off his hat and rubbed the sweat from his forehead. Everything looked familiar because  _ every _ freakin’ tree looked familiar! Maybe he could climb up to see where he was? Scout had a brief vision of falling from a tree and slowly dying alone in the woods. He decided to just keep walking.

Scout put his hat back on and kept walking. The forest had to end somewhere and if he just kept going in a straight line he was bound to find an end. Easier said then done. There were hills, thickets of foliage, fallen trees, and he’d run into a river twice. Either it looped back on itself or he’d somehow gotten turned around.

He wished he’d grabbed a jacket this morning. The frigid air had brought red to his cheeks and his nose was running freely. As he walked he sweated and his shirt grew damp, which just made him colder.

His toes hurt from kicking roots and his hands were scraped from tripping down a hill earlier.

Eventually as the world was cast in harsh light and the sky colored orange Scout gave up. He sat down in the crook between a log and a tree, brushing some twigs out of the way first. He tucked his knees up to his chest and sat there, absolutely miserable.

_ I ain’t goin’ to cry. Yeah, cryin’s for wimps! _

Scout managed to maintain that stance for about half an hour. In the cold stillness he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about death by bears or poisonous snakes or wolves. His ma was gonna be so disappointed in him for dying by getting freakin’ lost. Who was gonna tell her he was gone?

It was the thought of his ma sobbing, grieving her little boy without even anything to bury that got him going. And once Scout started crying he just couldn’t stop. His shoulders trembled as he sobbed, snot and tears running down his face. He was crying so hard he didn’t notice the crunch of leaves until the creature making them was right up on him.

“Hey.”

Scout looked up to see Sniper standing above him, his hands in his pockets.

“Are you cryin’, mate?”

“No!” Scout snapped, violently wiping at his face. He looked in disgust at the cold snot on his arm and wiped it on his pants.

“You get lost?” Sniper raised an eyebrow.

“No!” Scout repeated automatically. He was silent for a moment. “Maybe.”

Sniper pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “The base isn’t far back that way.”

“Oh.”

The Aussie offered him a hand up and Scout took it. Once he was on his feet Sniper took off his vest. “Here. It’s better than nothin’.”

The vest smelled of earth and gun oil. Underneath that was the faint scent of piss but Scout opted to ignore that. He put in on and gasped at the weight of it. He looked over at Sniper who started walking, not bothering to explain why it was so heavy.

Sniper had been telling the truth, the base wasn’t far off. At the door Scout gave him back his vest.

“Night.” Sniper lifted a hand to bid the Bostonian good night and then turned to leave.

“Wait! I, uh… thanks. If you hadn’t come by I…” Scout trailed off, nervous under Sniper’s unwavering stare.

“No problem.”


End file.
